


The Devil You Know

by dragonflybeach



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Other, POV Bobby Singer, Season 4 AU, Show level violence, references to offscreen M/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 04:24:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12291195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonflybeach/pseuds/dragonflybeach
Summary: Bela Talbot has managed to find a temporary loophole giving her an extension on her demon deal. She comes to Bobby and the Winchesters for help to void her deal permanently, and she has leverage to make them help her.





	The Devil You Know

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a Big Bang about 3 years ago, but rejected for not meeting the 20k word minimum. It's just been gathering dust on my hard drive since then. The timeframe in my head is around s4e15 to s4e17 since there is canonically a 4 month gap there.

He was down in the basement looking for _The Book of Thoth_ that dick Rufus swore he had returned when he first heard the knocking on the door.

 

He turned toward the stairs, his walk intentionally slowing as the beating on the door increased.

 

Wasn't the boys, because he'd have heard that car even down in the basement. Damn Winchesters spend their whole lives trying to be inconspicuous and under the radar and then drive the loudest, most unforgettable vehicle of any hunters ever.

 

Not Rufus, because that prick knew better than to show his face around here right now. Ellen and Annie were on that haunting in New England. Jo and her boyfriend had done a salt and burn in San Antonio and decided to stay down there for a few days. Martin was still in the nuthouse last anybody heard. Irv and Jefferson were on the trail of a skinwalker in Arizona. JD was still laid up after that revenant deal, and Lee was tracking demonic omens in the Pacific Northwest.

 

Bobby hadn't done anything lately to have the police coming to call, or at least he didn't _think_ he had.

 

That left the most likely candidates to be banging on his front door unannounced to be Walt and Roy or Garth, and Bobby wasn't in the mood to deal with rat bastards or idjits at the moment, so whoever it was could just hold their damn horses.

 

He opened the door with a silver knife in the hand on the knob, a sawed-off shotgun in his other hand, and a jar of holy water within arm’s reach.

 

When he saw who was standing on his porch, his first thought wasn't that she was a ghost or demon or revenant or whatever, it was that _of course_ she had managed to cheat death somehow.

 

"You better have a damn good reason for not bein' dead," Bobby snapped.

 

"I need you to contact the Winchesters for me," Bela said, apparently unbothered.

 

"And why exactly do you think those boys, or _I_ , am going to help you after everything you've done?" Bobby growled.

 

Bela didn't answer, just looked down pointedly at something on the porch just around the doorframe, out of Bobby's sight.

 

With a wary eye toward the young woman, Bobby leaned forward, not lowering his shotgun, watching Bela the whole time, until he was far enough forward to sneak a glance around the corner.

 

Bobby did a double-take at the plastic carrier, then looked up at Bela with one eyebrow raised.

 

"Let me guess." He sighed. "Dean."

 

"No, Sam actually." Bela shrugged with a sheepish smile.

 

Bobby lowered the gun and pushed the door further open. "You'd better come in."

 

And damn John Winchester for not living long enough for Bobby to rub _this_ in his face.

 

The boys arrived at the salvage yard just before noon the next day.

 

By the time they got out of the car, Bobby knew that the niggling feeling he had had in the back of his mind for weeks that something was wrong with those boys was correct, but there were more important matters at hand at the moment.

 

He was out the front door and halfway down the steps before Dean turned the engine off.

 

"'Bout time you two got your asses here!" he fumed.

 

"What's going on, Bobby?" Sam asked as he and Dean stopped, just over an arm’s length apart, way too much distance between the boys, and they stood all stiff and awkward, as if they were wary of each other.

 

Bobby jerked a thumb over his shoulder toward the house. "Bela Talbot is here."

 

"Bela?" Dean frowned.

 

"How?" Sam blinked. He looked over at Dean, but Dean didn't look at him.

 

Dean shook his head. "I thought she was dead. I thought her deal came due and she ended up a chew toy for hellhounds."

 

Bobby snorted and shook his head. "Apparently she found a loophole. Turns out you get a one-year extension if you're pregnant at the time the hellhounds are supposed to come for you."

 

"Pregnant?" both brothers said in shock.

 

"She turned up here yesterday with her week-and-a-half-old baby girl, looking for help," Bobby continued, as if they hadn't spoken at all.

 

"And why would you even think of helping her, after she shot Sam, stole the Colt, and nearly got us killed a couple times?" Dean said.

 

"Because she claims _Sam_ is the kid's father!" Bobby shouted.

 

"That's ridiculous!" Dean spluttered. "Sam would never ... "

 

He trailed off as he looked over at his brother, who stood silently, eyes wide and face gone white.

 

"Holy crap, you did," Dean muttered.

 

Sam's mouth opened and closed several times, but no sound came out.

 

"You could come in and talk about this like civilized people, instead of shouting in the front yard."

 

All three men turned to find Bela standing on the porch with a pink-blanket-wrapped bundle held to her shoulder.

 

Bobby looked at the Winchesters, nodded, and gestured toward the house with his head.

 

The brothers obediently went, with Dean reaching up and slapping Sam on the head.

 

"Ow!" he said loudly, giving Dean a hateful look.

_"Bela,_ Sam!" Dean groaned. "Of all people that you could knock up! She _shot_ you! She stole _the Colt_!"

 

"You're just taking her word for it?" Sam asked incredulously.

 

"Unless you can tell me it's not possible, I'm going with the assumption that it _may_ be true," Dean answered as he stepped through the doorway and went toward the library. "Look me in the eye and tell me you didn't bang her, and I'll believe you."

 

Sam sighed, looked down, and shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

 

Bobby shook his head and continued on into the kitchen. Twenty-some-odd years later and those boys still didn't have "inside voices," so he didn't miss much by not being in the room.

 

"Great!" Dean shouted. "That's just _great_ , Sam! So pending DNA test results, we have to presume she's telling the truth and that _you_ have a _kid_ with the closest thing we have to an arch enemy."

 

"Don't be so melodramatic, Dean," Bela said. "It's not like we haven't worked together before."

 

"Worked together, on occasion, when it was mutually beneficial to both sides," Dean conceded. "But even then, you were just waiting for one of us to drop our guard long enough to stick a knife in our backs."

 

"You planned this," Sam said softly enough that Bobby had to strain to hear him. "You cold-hearted …"

 

"Of course I planned it," Bela answered. "You can't leave something as important as having a baby to chance."

 

"And you walked right into it!" Dean's voice, with a scuffling sound, probably him trying to Gibbs-slap his brother again. "How fucking irresponsible ... "

 

"African Dream Root," Sam said, biting off the words angrily and earning a “Yes” from Bela.

 

"Wait, what?" Dean sounded confused. "No! You couldn't knock her up in a dream! That takes some actual physical contact!"

 

Bobby walked in with three beers, handing one to each of the brothers and glaring at Bela as he sat down.

 

Dean sat down beside Bobby.

 

"She used the dream root to get into my head," Sam ground out, still standing rigid in the middle of the room with his arms folded across his chest. "She kept showing up in my dreams, getting me all hot and bothered and not finishing what she started. It went on for a couple weeks, almost every night. Until one night you had just picked up some woman in a bar and all of a sudden Bela was there, too. Claimed she was working a job in the same town." He huffed in irritation. "You paid a hooker to pick up Dean, didn't you?"

 

Bela shrugged. "I had to make sure we weren't disturbed. I didn't need him barging in mid-coupling and dragging you out like an angry parent."

 

Sam shoved his beer into Dean's hand, turned, and punched angrily at the wall.

 

The baby whimpered. Bela knelt to shush her daughter, patting the child gently.

 

"Hey!" Bobby shouted, scrambling to his feet. "You need to take out some frustrations, there's a whole junkyard outside!"

 

Sam cradled his hand with the other and cursed under his breath, staring daggers at Bela.

 

"Sam!" Dean yelled, already across the room beside his brother. "You ... "

 

"Could you all stop shouting around the baby?" Bela hissed.

 

"How did you manage the rest of it?" Sam asked, his eyes flicking to the child sleeping in the portacrib and then back to the mother. "Because the condoms were in my wallet and you couldn't have gotten to them."

 

"You really should flush your used condoms instead of just throwing them into the trash," Bela answered with a half-shrug. "You never know what a desperate woman with an ancient Chinese fertility ritual might do."

 

Sam huffed again. "Seriously?"

 

"There's a reason there are over a billion people in China," Bela told him.

 

Dean spoke at the same time. "Are you serious?" He looked over at Sam. "Condoms? As in plural?"

 

Sam ignored him. "I still want DNA proof. You did this with me, no telling who else you could have manipulated."

 

"It was just you," Bela said. "I don't have a problem with a DNA test. But it's going to take time, and time is of the essence right now."

 

"Why Sam?" Dean demanded. "You don't wanna go to Hell, fine. But why did you get _my_ brother involved in your schemes?"

 

"Well, you _do_ remember that I suggested that you and I have angry sex?" Bela smirked at him. "I was only half-joking. You could have been her father. I tried you first. All the hype about Dean Winchester's legendary bedroom skills and so on. I took dream root, put on my naughtiest black lingerie, and walked into your subconscious. You stomped and brooded and demanded to know why I was there and what I wanted and where the Colt was. Sam just backed me against the wall and stuck his tongue down my throat." She turned toward Sam. "I wasn't surprised you like to play rough, but I wouldn't have guessed you were a biter."

 

When Dean turned to face him, Sam hunched his shoulders and looked back at him with something between a bitchface and embarrassment, his cheeks and the tips of his ears flushed.

_Balls_.

 

"All right, if we've finished rehashing more about Sam and Bela than I _ever_ wanted to know, can we get to the part where Bela tells us what she _wants?"_ Bobby asked, gesturing with his beer.

 

"I ... " Bela glanced at the crib. "We need help. The spirits told me that angels and demons are after the Winchesters, and that they would be looking for _all_ the Winchesters. I need to keep Danaea hidden, and I need to find a more permanent way to void my deal." She looked over at Sam.

 

"Or what?" Sam flung his arms wide and Bela flinched. "You think you're gonna dump your kid on me, after you... " He clamped his mouth shut, closing his eyes and grinding his jaw just like his daddy used to.

 

"I have to make some sort of plan for her, if I can't void my deal," Bela repeated.

 

"You know what, maybe if you hadn't killed your parents, they could have taken care of her!" Sam thundered, waking the baby, who began to squall. "Oh, _that's_ right. If you hadn't killed your parents for _money,_ you wouldn't have a deal to try to weasel out of!"

 

"I didn't kill them for their money!" she snapped, tone suddenly switching from defensive to angry. "I killed them because it was the only way I could get away from them! I haven't touched their money since I started making my own!"

 

"You expect us to _believe_ you?" Dean stood up and was beside Sam with one step. "You lie, cheat, steal, manipulate, and god only knows what else, and you expect us to think _you_ were the victim?"

 

Bela blinked, and just that fast, her whole demeanor changed again. She was completely calm and collected. "I learned years ago not to care what anyone thought of me. What happened to my parents doesn't matter now. What matters is that _this,"_ she bent over and picked up the crying baby, "is Sam Winchester's child, and she needs to be safe from whatever angels, demons, or other creatures want her for their own purposes."

 

The baby's wailing settled into sniffling whimpers as Bela watched the boys expectantly.

 

The boys turned to each other and did their thing where they carried on a whole conversation with facial expressions and head gestures and half shrugs. With a final nod, Dean stepped back and tipped his head toward the ceiling.

 

"Castiel!" he called, not quite a shout.

 

Almost instantly there was a fluttering noise, and Dean's pet angel popped up in the room.

 

Bela gasped and stepped backwards.

 

"You..." Cas began, then turned as if he suddenly realized Bela was there, but then his eyes fell to the kid. His head tilted to the side, and he turned back to the boys. "Sam has fathered an offspring?"

 

Sam froze, then his shoulders dropped and he sighed loudly. Dean smirked, looking from Sam to Cas, and back to Sam.

 

"Don't think we’re gonna need that DNA test, Sammy," Dean said.

 

Bela inched backward, holding the baby tight against her chest.

 

"Bela, meet Castiel. He's an angel." Dean jerked a thumb toward the new arrival. "Cas, this is Bela, future demon and, apparently, Sam's baby mama."

 

Sam muttered something Bobby didn't quite hear, but the intent behind the words was loud and clear.

 

Cas looked at Sam and frowned. "I do not understand why you would want your brother to do that."

 

Sam's bitchface turned into a glare that would make most civilians wet their pants.

 

Dean grabbed Cas' arm and turned him around. "Anyway, the angel proofing we saw on that funeral home in Wyoming. Would that work here, keep angels out? And are the salt and iron and protective runes Bobby has already going to affect it?"

 

Cas blinked, and then seemed to catch up with what Dean was saying.

 

"Yes," he said with a nod. "We could ward the house against angels. However, the warding would keep me out, as well."

 

Dean looked over at Sam, but he was glaring at Bela like he was gonna chew nails and spit shrapnel, and Bela was still watching Cas wide-eyed.

 

"Well, I hate it, but that's what we need to do." Dean nodded toward the baby. "We gotta make sure nobody messes with Little Bit until we can figure some things out."

 

Bobby looked at Dean, wondering if he even realized he had called the young'un the same thing Caleb used to call Sam when he was a kid. Probably wasn't a good idea to mention it, seeing as how Bobby liked his teeth and all.

 

"I can sketch the basic symbols for you," Castiel said. "And I can instruct you on the proper placement to keep unwanted visitors away."

 

He and the boys grabbed some paper and pencils and went outside.

 

"Do you know him?" Bela asked as the door closed behind them.

 

"Yeah." Bobby nodded, looking toward the door. "Cas is the only angel any of us trust. Most of 'em are no better'n the demons."

 

"I'm going to take Danaea upstairs. Would you mind bringing the cot?" Bela reached over and picked up the baby.

 

Bobby rolled his eyes at the princess but folded up the contraption, followed her upstairs, and set it up for her again.

 

Damn if those boys weren't gonna owe him one by the time this was all over.

 

Bobby returned to a familiar scene in the kitchen - Dean's rear end sticking out of the open fridge and Sam leaning against the sink with his arms folded.

 

"Yeah, well, I've got a question for you," Sam grumbled. "Why does Bela even still _have_ the baby?"

 

"What do you mean?" Dean asked, still rooting around in the refrigerator. "Hey, Bobby, don't you ever go to the grocery store?"

 

Bobby rolled his eyes. "Not like I expected to be feedin' the Mongol horde the last time I went to the store. The lunchmeat and cheese are where they always are, bread’s in the freezer, canned soup and chili in the cabinet. After lunch you can go get some more stuff. You know where the Walmart is, and there ain’t no way I’m leaving her alone in a houseful of things she could sell."

 

"That's what I mean," Sam said with a hand gesture toward the upstairs. "This is _Bela_ we're talking about. She has a healthy Caucasian newborn ready to be adopted without a ten-year waiting list. Why is the kid not sold to the highest bidder already?"

 

"Probably figures showing up with the kid is the only way we'll help her," Bobby said. "Some of the people she does business with have connections with the mafia and worse. She probably thought it wasn't a good idea to sell a baby to someone like that and then have demons and angels show up at their house."

 

"Why should we help her?" Sam threw his hands wide.

_Balls. The more pissed off Sam is, the more he talks with his hands._

 

"I mean, she puts the kid up for adoption, she goes to Hell in three months, we go back to dealing with angels and demons," he continued, hands flying everywhere. "Why should we help her?"

 

"Because how's she gonna explain demons and angels showing up at the adoptive parents' house?" Dean asked.

 

"Since when would Bela even care? She's got her money, she's off on the Concorde for happy hour in Monte Carlo, what's it matter to her?" Sam snapped, pointing toward the stairs again.

 

"She might not care, but then it ends up being a case, and we get involved with it anyway." Dean began pulling food from the fridge.

 

"Maybe we do, maybe we don't," Sam said, flinging his arms wide again.

 

Bobby and Dean looked at each other.

 

Dean handed Sam bologna, cheese slices, and a frozen loaf of bread. "Make sandwiches while you whine, Sammy."

 

"I'm just saying, Dean," Sam grumbled, taking a knife from the drainboard and prying away two slices of bread, which he put in the toaster. "She shot me. She stole the Colt. She stole the hand of glory we needed to break the sailor's curse. She stole your lottery tickets. She was going to let you _die_ over that whole rabbit's foot deal. She told Gordon where we were. She set us up for Henricksen. She... "

 

"And exactly how much were you thinking about _any_ of that when you were fucking her?" Dean interrupted, slamming two cans of vegetable soup down on the counter.

 

Sam rolled his eyes and snorted like an angry bull again.

 

Dean opened the cans and dumped the soup into a pot, adding water to make it go farther.

 

"She had your car towed," Sam muttered, assembling the first sandwich with the first two pieces of

thawed bread.

 

"So what else did Cas say while you had him outside?" Bobby asked in an attempt to cut off that line of thinking before it could get started.

 

"He says that we need to keep her off the radar, keep the angels away from her." Dean shrugged, spreading out four paper plates next to where Sam was working. "Obviously. Sam asked if the kid had inherited demon blood from him. Cas said that demon blood can't be passed from parent to child, which makes total sense because if it could, then Ol' Yellow Eyes wouldn't have had to go sneaking around in nurseries. But otherwise Cas didn't have much to say, not that he ever does."

 

Bobby didn't fall off the turnip truck last night, so he just glared at Dean with his arms folded until the boy coughed up the rest.

 

"Ugh, fine. I asked Cas if the baby would inherit any of Sam's psychic mojo. Cas said it was possible, because Sam had to have some psychic ability naturally in order for the demon blood to amplify it. Of course, the kid is way too young to tell how it might turn out if she does." Dean reached over and poked Sam in the side. "Wouldn't that be funny? What if the kid could turn invisible and she was gone when Bela went to check on her? Or if she could get mad and make things fly across the room before she could even talk?"

 

"It's not funny, Dean," Sam grumbled without even turning around.

 

"It is _too_ funny." Dean made a face at Sam's back.

 

"Enough." Bobby cut them off before they could go off like overgrown five-year-olds. "You two get lunch ready, I'm gonna go start going through the books on demon deals again, see if we can find anything we overlooked when Dean was on the hook."

 

Bobby left the two of them at it, unable to shake the feeling that Dean put on a show of teasing Sam for Bobby's sake and Sam hadn't played along.

 

It was oddly quiet in the kitchen, none of the boys' normal bickering to be overheard, and when Dean poked his head into the room to tell Bobby the food was ready, he almost seemed grateful to have someone else in the room.

 

Dean took a tray up to Bela without being asked, leaving the three men to eat downstairs.

"All right," Bobby said when they were almost through eating. "I've gotten a few new books since the last time we did this. It also wouldn't hurt to give a once-over to some of the things we already read. I don't remember specifically anything about male demon deals versus female demon deals, but that doesn't mean there wasn't anything. Could be we just didn't look at it because it didn't apply."

 

Dean squinted at the time on the microwave. "It's a little after one now. Should go to Walmart sooner rather than later to avoid the soccer mom crowd."

 

"I'll go," Sam offered softly. "The two of you can stay here and research."

 

Bobby and Dean both looked at him, because Sam rarely offered to make the grocery runs alone and he definitely never chose Walmart over research.

 

He shrugged. "I just ... I want to clear my head. Getting out of here for a little while would help."

 

Bobby nodded, accepting the explanation even if he didn't believe it completely. "Probably not a bad idea."

 

"Are you sure you should be driving my car with your head not clear?" Dean asked, his eyes narrowed.

 

Sam rolled his eyes, huffed, and held out his hand while giving Dean a death glare.

 

Dean sighed and handed over the keys. "Just askin', man."

 

"Any requests?" Sam asked.

 

"Yeah, I want some cereal that doesn’t say ‘healthy’ anywhere on the box," Dean replied, dropping his bowl and spoon into the sink.

 

"Get two gallons of milk," Bobby added. "Bela's drank near half a gallon since yesterday. Speakin' of which, I'd better go up and ask her."

 

Bobby looked briefly between the boys. Neither spoke or made any gesture, so he went on upstairs.

 

Bela jotted down a few things on a list for him--milk, fresh vegetables, a specific brand of orange juice, chicken breasts and fish because, she informed Bobby, she didn't eat red meat. A wicked smile crossed her face as Bobby looked over the list. She took it back from him and added "jumbo pack of Always maxi pads - orange wrappers" at the bottom.

_Balls. Good thing Sam volunteered._

 

He made his way back downstairs to hear that the boys were finally talking to each other, if talking was the right word for it.

 

" ... fucking drunk were you, Sam? To fuck Bela? Seriously?"

 

"I wasn't _drunk._ I'd had a couple drinks, but I wasn't impaired. You ought to know. You and Dad were the ones who taught me to hold my liquor."

 

"And Dad always accused _me_ of thinking with my dick."

 

"Dean," Sam groaned. "Just don't."

 

Bobby returned to the room to find Sam with his face buried in his hands. He slapped the list down on the table by the boy's elbow to get his attention, gesturing at the stack of books on the table while catching Dean's eye.

 

Sam sighed again and stood, shoving the list into his pocket without even looking at it.

 

"I ain't sayin' hurry back, but I _am_ sayin' the quicker we get this research done, the quicker Bela can get out of my house," Bobby pointedly reminded Sam.

 

Sam nodded. "Back as soon as I can."

 

Bobby and Dean each took three books, Bobby spreading his out on the table while Dean sprawled out on the end of the couch.

 

Bela came down as the car drove away under the guise of getting some books, but again, Bobby wasn't a natural born idjit. He knew she came to see who was still in the house.

 

"You didn't answer the question." Dean looked at her with narrowed eyes and folded arms. "Why Sam? I'm sure you could have found someone a lot easier to convince than him."

 

Bela smirked at him. "Tell me something, Dean. Which is the issue that's really bothering you? That Sam had _me,_ or that _I_ had Sam?"

 

Dean was so livid he couldn't even answer her. He jumped to his feet but Bobby reached out and grabbed his wrist and shook his head at the boy.

 

It was pretty obvious Bela was trying to stir him up for some reason, and they wouldn't find out what for if Dean fell for it.

 

Bela took the books, called out a very unnecessary "I'll be upstairs." and left.

 

Bobby pretended not to notice how long it took Dean to get himself under control.

 

Sam was gone about an hour and fifteen minutes, not unreasonable considering it was a twenty minute drive to the store each way, but something was off, or maybe Bobby should say, _more_ off, about him when he came back.

 

His shoulders were no longer hunched, which was a good sign. His eyes glittered just a little and kept flickering over to Dean, who wasn't paying him much attention.

 

Bobby just couldn't quite put his finger on what was bothering him until Sam asked what books he should start with.

 

The kid had stopped and brushed his teeth on the way back.

 

That didn't make sense. Dean, and especially Bobby, wouldn't have thought twice about Sam stopping and having a drink on the way back. The whole lot of 'em had certainly done it plenty of times. Sam didn't seem like he'd had enough to be impaired; like that conversation Bobby had overheard earlier, the boy could hold his booze when he wanted to.

 

Bobby watched as Sam settled in at the desk with his own stack of books.

 

There weren't any other symptoms of drug use. He wasn't jittery or drowsy. His movements looked normal. He didn't appear to be having any trouble focusing on what he was reading. His breathing didn't appear too fast or too slow.

 

There was just something Bobby couldn't quite put his finger on. Sam had always been intense, even as a kid. He could tune out the world and focus like no one Bobby had ever seen where Dean was 90 miles an hour in all directions. But this, there was just something a little too sharp, his focus laser tuned and his concentration unnaturally precise.

 

Besides, Bobby knew Dean had self medicated with the recreational pharmaceuticals a few times over the years, but he had never known Sam to do anything stronger than whiskey.

 

Bobby glanced over at Dean, who had his nose buried in his book.

 

Bobby didn't know what it was, but he would be the farm that something was seriously wrong with the boys.

 

But right now, he had other things to worry about, so he shoved it aside and got back to his own research.

 

When the sun dipped low enough to shine through the window into Dean's eyes, he put the book aside and announced he was going to start dinner.

 

Sam just nodded, didn't even look up from what he was doing.

 

Dean had the table set and the food ready by the time he told Sam and Bobby to come eat. Bela was already seated with a plate of chicken and sauteed vegetables, with the baby in one of those car seat carrier things on a chair beside her.

 

Which left three other chairs that were solid and one kinda wobbly one, but Sam fixed his plate and took it back to the library instead of eating with the rest of them.

 

Bobby didn't say a word, having learned to pick his battles with the Winchesters.

 

Dean and Bobby joined Bela at the table, sitting across from one another with Bela at the end of the table between them. The three of them ate in an awkward silence, with Dean looking over at the baby every few minutes.

 

"You can ask, you know." Bela finally said. "She was born the 9th of January, weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces, 19 inches long, perfectly healthy."

 

"What's her full name?" Dean asked softly.

 

"Danaea Fallon." Bela answered.

 

Dean snorted. “Wouldn’t have figured you as that much of a Tonight Show fan.”

 

Bela rolled her eyes at him. "Fallon is an Irish name that means in charge. Danaea was the name of the mother of Perseus in Greek mythology. She was a powerful sorceress."

 

Dean stared at the sleeping baby for a long time.

 

"She has Sam's eyes." He finally said. "Or at least, they're shaped like his. She's got your chin." He glanced at Bela, then back at the baby. "Can't really tell about the mouth. You and Sam have similar shaped mouths. Her nose doesn't really look like either one of you."

 

Bela half smiled. "She's a bit young for that yet."

 

"She's a baby." Bobby commented with rolled eyes. "First time I ever met you, you looked just like your mama. 'Course, you were five years old. Now you look more like your dad, but your coloring's lighter. Sam looked just like your dad when he was a baby, but now he's more of a mix of your parents."

 

As he figured, Bela didn't offer any information about which of her parents she might resemble or traits that could have been passed down from that side of the family.

 

The silence afterward stretched out long enough to become uncomfortable, before Bela turned to Dean and offered "Do you want to hold her?"

 

Of course that boy had been itching to hold the young'un all along, but he wasn't going to say anything.

 

He still didn't, just unbuckled the straps on her seat and gently lifted her out.

 

"Make sure you hold her head." Bela instructed, but Dean already had it covered.

 

He cradled Danaea in the crook of one arm while he examined her more closely.

 

"She's got Sam's hands too." he announced, gently opening one tiny fist. "She's got the long, slender fingers like his. Mom used to say she was going to start Sammy on piano lessons as soon as he was old enough."

 

"Hopefully she will get the opportunity to pursue music if she's interested, once she'd older." Bela said.

 

The baby's eyes fluttered open. She blinked, yawned, wriggled a little, and stared at Dean.

 

Dean began talking to her softly, making exaggerated faces. The baby just blinked and looked at him, but you can’t expect much more from a baby not two weeks old yet.

 

Danaea managed to get her fist to her mouth and started slurping on it.

 

"Sam did the same thing." Dean said, not taking his eyes off the baby. "He sucked on his knuckle rather than his thumb."

 

Bobby looked over at Bela and saw her smirk as she watched Dean with his niece.

 

This was gonna be trouble, because the longer he sat there finding similarities to Sam, the more Dean was falling for that young'un.

 

And _that,_ for some reason, was exactly what Bela wanted.

 

Bobby put his dishes in the sink and left Dean cooin' over the kid with the pointed announcement that someone around here should get back to work.

 

Sam was on the laptop with a book open beside him when Bobby came into the living room, his dishes stacked precariously on a pile of books on the coffee table.

 

"Anything?" Bobby asked, taking the seat across from the boy.

 

"The same as before." Sam shrugged, looking up only briefly. "We could offer the demon something else, but what else would they want? Souls are about the most valuable commodity a demon can deal in. We could offer the Colt, but _Bela_ already gave it to them."

 

Bobby made a noise of acknowledgement and picked up the nearest book, trying to think of anything they could offer that a demon would be interested in.

 

"You know one thing I haven't found?" Sam continued, flipping the page on the book. "Any kind of reference to an extension. How did Bela know she could get an extension by getting pregnant? Because I haven't found anything about it yet."

 

"Good point." Bobby agreed. "We'll have to ask her, maybe read further into wherever she found that out."

 

Dean wandered in, walked past Sam without messing with his hair or touching his shoulder or even speaking to him, and dropped onto the other end of the couch, sitting mostly upright instead of his usual sprawl that usually would have one foot on Sam or close to it.

 

Bobby sighed, figuring there was going to be some kinda family therapy session by the time this was all over with.

 

Less than half an hour later, the baby started crying.

 

The men mostly ignored it for the first few minutes, figuring it would stop soon.

 

It didn't.

 

Instead, the wailing got louder and higher pitched.

 

"Is she not trying to do something with her kid?" Sam finally asked.

 

Dean looked over at Sam for a minute, then put his book down and headed upstairs.

 

Bobby and Sam followed him, of course.

 

Bela was pacing the length of the upstairs hall with the young'un who wasn't just crying now, but making high pitched screams and shrieks.

 

"What's wrong with her?" Sam said over Danaea's crying.

 

"I don't know." Bela shook her head. "I don't think traveling agrees with her. She's done this three evenings in a row. Just cries for hours at a time about this time of day. She doesn't seem to be hungry, she's not hot or cold, her diaper doesn't need changed."

 

"Put her down for a minute." Dean said, opening the door to the room Bela was using.

 

"What?" Bela frowned.

 

"Just lay her on the bed for a minute. I want to see something." Dean told her.

 

Bela laid the baby down on her back. She immediately screeched louder and drew her knees up toward her chest.

 

"That's what I thought." Dean muttered, more to himself than the others.

 

He reached down and started to pick Danaea up.

 

"What are you doing?" Bela cried, trying to shove him away.

 

"Trust me for a minute, okay?" Dean snapped.

 

He turned the infant in his arms until she laid face down lengthwise along one arm, the side of her face cradled in the palm of his hand and her legs dangling down on either side of his elbow. He gently stroked her back with his other hand.

 

Within moments, her cries became quieter and less distressed. She didn't stop crying, but the difference was dramatic.

 

Bela let go of Dean's shirt and stepped back, watching him.

 

He began humming 'Smoke on the Water' and took the baby out into the hall. He paced the length as Bela had done, but still holding the kid face down and rubbing her back.

 

She quieted further, her cries becoming more like hiccupping moans and pitiful mewls.

 

"How did you know to do that?" Sam asked, his eyes wide.

 

"That's what Mom and Dad used to do with you when you had colic." Dean gave a wry smile and the hint of a shrug. "Well, not 'Smoke on the Water.' We didn't find out that put you to sleep until we were on the road with Dad."

 

"I had colic?" Sam frowned.

 

"Did you ever." Dean snorted. "For months. Mom fretted about it, because with most babies it only lasts a couple weeks. I wanted them to send you back and get a baby that didn't scream all the time." He looked over to Bela. "You got a bottle for her?"

 

"No, I nurse her. She doesn't need bottles." Bela shook her head.

 

"Sam, go back to town and get the kid a couple bottles and some peppermint tea. No, wait, I'll do it tomorrow." Dean ordered. He turned back to Bela. "If you give her a little weak peppermint tea, that helps too. When a kid has colic their stomach hurts and the pressure of your arm against it feels better."

 

Of course Dean would know that. He was Sam’s parent at 4 years old more than he was Sam’s brother.

 

Sam gave Dean and the baby he was still holding a long, irritated look, and stomped down the stairs louder than he used to do when his daddy was alive.

 

Bobby figured that between Dean and Bela, they could handle the young'un, so he went back downstairs to get back to work.

 

Sam was pouting like his daddy had just moved him the day before his book report was due.

 

"Why are we helping her again?" He huffed.

 

"Because the last time she got desperate, you ended up a father." Bobby reminded him. "We're all a lot safer if we work _with_ her than leaving her on her own."

 

"Dean showed her what to do." Sam said, looking over his book toward the doorway. "Why doesn't he just leave her with the baby and come on?"

_Balls._

 

"I'd rather him stay up there and the baby not cry than the three of us tryin' to read with all that racket goin' on again." Bobby answered pointedly, picking up his book. “And seein’ as how that’s _your_ kid he’s up there taking care of, maybe you can try to be grateful instead of jealous.”

 

Sam didn’t say a word, just slapped on his poker face so Bobby knew that the words struck home, and raised his book.

 

Dean eventually joined them, to be pointedly ignored by Sam. Dean just shrugged, picked up his book, and went back to reading.

 

They worked in silence until nearly one in the morning. Bobby stood, stretched, and announced that his eyes were about crossed so he was calling it a night.

 

Dean closed his book with a loud sigh. "Yeah, I've reread the same page about four times now. You coming, Sammy?"

 

"I'mma finish this chapter." Sam muttered, not even looking up.

 

Bobby wasn't surprised to find Sam sleeping on the couch in the morning, with the lights off and spare quilt from the closet.

 

Bobby wasn't running a damn bed and breakfast, so he made the coffee and set out the fruit salad, boiled eggs, and loaf of bread Sam bought on the table. He wondered for a moment who the hell bought eggs already boiled, but then realized those boys didn't have a whole lot of experience with kitchens, so it kinda made sense.

 

By the time he had made his own toast, the boys were apparently awake and outside arguing. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but he could hear Sam's voice and could tell from the tone that the boy wasn't happy.

 

He spread butter on the toast, opened the lid on the strawberry jam to find it had started growing fur, so he tossed it and sliced a couple of the boiled eggs in half to keep them from rolling off the plate when he went in the other room.

 

Dean wandered in and went straight to the coffee pot as usual.

 

"Your brother come in with you?" Bobby asked, looking toward the doorway.

 

Dean frowned, sipped coffee, and shrugged. "I guess he fell asleep down here last night. His bed wasn't slept in."

 

"I thought you two were outside talking just now." Bobby said.

 

Before he could answer, the back door opened and Sam came in, still wearing his clothes from the day before.

 

"Morning." Sam said without really looking at either of them, headed straight for the coffee pot.

 

The toilet flushed upstairs, which told Bobby where Bela was.

 

"Cas out there?" Bobby asked.

 

"What? Cas? No? Is he supposed to be?" Sam stammered a bit, and his hand shook as he lowered his coffee cup.

 

"I just thought I heard you talking to someone out there is all." Bobby answered.

 

"No, just me. Went out to get some air." Sam turned to look at them, his eyes too wide and innocent.

 

Bobby knew damn well that he hadn’t started hearing things in his old age, but neither he nor Dean called Sam out for lying.

 

Bobby refilled his coffee cup, picked up his plate, and muttered something about getting back to business.

 

Unfortunately, re-reading mostly the same materials as they had when Dean's demon deal was coming due wasn't producing any different information this time.

 

The three men researched through the morning and three pots of coffee before switching to beer around noon. Bela had taken a few books upstairs when she came down to get something to eat, but seeing as how there'd had been no sign of her since, apparently she hadn't found anything either.

 

At 2:30, Bobby called a mandatory break to stretch their legs and get some sandwiches.

 

As usual, the case consumed all of them, even during their break. After eating, they each poured a little whiskey in a glass and talked about how much nothing they'd found.

 

"Maybe we're looking at this wrong." Sam suggested. "Maybe instead of demon deals in general, we should be looking into Bela's deal specifically. I mean, she was a kid when she made the deal. Maybe there's some different set of rules when someone that young is involved. As far as I know, none of us has found anything about getting an extension if you're pregnant. Maybe there's more about her deal we don't know that would help."

 

"I still can't imagine how a girl that young would be that money hungry that she would kill her parents for the inheritance." Dean shook his head, took a drink.

 

"Bela didn't lie, ya know." Bobby told the boys. "She hasn't touched her parents' money in years. I looked into her background after the deal came due. 'Course, I didn't know then that the deal actually _hadn't_ come due."

 

"Then why would she kill her parents, Bobby?" Dean asked. "You know, those people who love her and take care of her?"

 

"You ever consider that maybe the parents weren't good people?" Bobby raised an eyebrow. "I think the kid's name is a clue."

 

He went back in the other room, picked up a book, brought it back, and handed it to Sam as he came around to sit back down.

 

"What do you mean, that the kid's name is a clue?" Sam asked.

 

"Read the story of Danaea in there." Bobby nodded toward the book. "In later Greco-Roman mythology, she was known as Danae, daughter of the king of Argus and the mother of Perseus. Her father imprisoned her to keep her from marrying because of a prophecy that he would be killed by his own grandchild, but Zeus managed to get into where she was locked up and knock her up and the king's grandson did eventually kill him by accident. That bit about her being a powerful sorceress? Ain't in Bullfinch's Mythology. But in some of the earlier stories, in the Chthonic mythology, where she's called Danaea, the father locked her away because he wanted her for himself and the grandson who killed him, not on accident this time, was probably also his son. _Then_ she grew up to take up witchcraft and necromancy."

 

Sam opened the book and began flipping pages.

 

"So you're saying the father ... and the daughter ... " Dean trailed off.

 

"And if the mother knew and didn't stop it, well, there's your motive for a little girl to commit murder." Bobby suggested. "In my digging, I found a hospital record. Bela, who was still known as Abby back then, was admitted to a private clinic the week before her parents died. The doctor's report was missing, but according to the rest of the chart, she either had a miscarriage or abortion. She was fourteen years old. And went to an all girls' private school."

 

All three men were silent for a moment, not really making eye contact.

 

Dean suddenly turned his head to look at the book, then looked at Bobby and repeated "Chthonic."

 

"Older, darker version of Greco-Roman mythology." Bobby nodded. "Dealt more with the gods of the Underworld, demon mythology, darker stuff like incest and murder and ..."

 

Dean was already out of his chair and headed upstairs.

 

"Human sacrifice." Sam finished grimly, and then bolted after his brother.

 

_Balls._

 

Bobby knocked his chair over in his hurry to follow them and then wrenched his bad knee trying to move too fast around the fallen chair.

 

By the time Bobby got upstairs, Dean already had Bela backed against a wall while Sam filled the doorway, his feet shoulder width apart and his hands gripping the molding above the door with his elbows resting on the sides of the frame just above his shoulders.

_Sam can block an entire doorway. Good to know._ Bobby thought to himself as he elbowed the boy aside enough to see what was going on.

 

"So what was your plan after?" Dean asked. "How did you think you were going to get out of the deal in the end?"

 

Bela looked away and didn't answer.

 

"No!" Dean shouted, raking her suitcase off the dresser with an outstretched hand. "You heartless _bitch._ You were going to trade the _baby_ to get out of your deal, weren't you?"

 

Little Danaea, over in her folding crib in the corner, started crying.

 

"I ... " Bela tried to shrink away, folding her arms protectively across her chest, drawing in on herself. "I couldn't do it. Yes, that's what I planned. I didn't think about her as a child, just as a commodity to exchange for what I wanted. But then ... " her voice cracked, and she choked back a sob. "When she was born, and I held her, I couldn't do it! That's why I came here."

 

"But you were going to!" Dean shouted over the wailing baby and the whining mother. "You were going to trade your own child's life to save your own! You weren't even going to tell Sam he _had_ a daughter, you were just going to hand her over to demons!"

 

"But I _didn't!"_ Bela insisted. "I _can't!"_

 

"Why not?" Dean demanded. "Because you _love_ her so much? Just like you _loved_ your parents?"

 

"You know nothing about my parents!" Bela spat angrily.

 

"Oh, maybe I know more than you think." Dean's tone dropped dangerously. "I know you and your dad were a little too close. What I don't know is why you thought you had to _kill_ them, instead of just turning them into social services."

 

Bela shrieked and punched Dean in the mouth. Dean stepped back, his hand going toward the gun at least three fourths of them knew was in Dean's back waistband. Bobby surged forward, trying to get between Bela and Dean. Bela bent down and came back up swinging with a knife. Sam grabbed Dean from behind and yanked him backward, while Bobby grabbed Bela's knife hand and shoved it up and away before it could do any damage to anyone.

 

"Enough, both of ya!" Bobby shouted.

 

Bela exhaled sharply and visibly relaxed, her grip on the knife loosening enough Bobby could take it from her hand and toss it onto the dresser.

 

Dean pulled himself away from Sam, took two steps forward, bent and picked up the baby, who was screaming at the top of her little lungs by now. He cuddled her up against his chest, bent his head to the top of her head, and made shushing noises and murmured softly.

 

Bobby couldn't understand most of what he was saying, but he did catch that "Uncle Dean" didn't mean something.

 

Sam flung his arms wide and gave his brother a look that said "Are you fucking _serious?"_ about as plain as a neon sign.

 

Dean gave Bela a very pointed look, and walked out with the baby.

 

"No!" Bela called after him. "Where are you taking her?"

 

Sam looked at Bela, his eyes narrowed and his lip slightly curled on one side, and followed his brother.

 

"No!" Bela tried to go after them, but Bobby held her back.

 

"Bela, just calm down." He said firmly. "Dean is not gonna hurt her. He's not gonna let anyone else hurt her. But you go after him right this minute and I won't guarantee what either one of those boys might do to _you_."

 

Bela took a deep breath and nodded.

 

Bobby cautiously let go of her hand.

 

"I know you've probably not had much reason to trust people in your life." he said. "But you can trust Dean Winchester to do two things - watch out for Sam and watch out for innocent kids. And that one is _Sam's_ innocent kid. She's fine with him for a little while. Just stay up here until things calm down some."

 

Bela nodded, swiping a hand across her face.

 

"I'm goin' downstairs. I'll let you know if the baby needs you." Bobby assured her.

 

He heard her softly whispered thanks as he closed the door behind him.

 

Someone had already picked up the overturned chair, because he found Dean walking in circles around the kitchen, humming softly to the baby who was almost asleep.

 

Sam leaned against the doorway to the library, watching Dean with almost a puzzled expression.

 

They both looked past Bobby when he came in.

 

"I told her to stay put for a while." Bobby told them, walking over to the table and pouring himself another drink.

 

Sam nodded, crossing his arms.

 

"I'm not leaving the baby alone with her." Dean said firmly. "Not at all. Not until we get this worked out. And maybe not then."

 

Bobby sat down. "Son, I can't say I blame you, but Bela did bring her here. Apparently she did cross off that plan."

 

"Until she gets desperate again." Dean started to raise his voice, but then thought better of it. "We can't trust her, Bobby."

 

"But you can't just ... " Sam waved both hands at the baby. "Take over her kid. The kid is gonna need diaper changes and all that. She's _nursing,_ Dean."

 

Dean paused for a moment to roll his eyes at his brother. "Like I've never seen boobs before."

 

"I didn't think you'd ever seen anything like _that_ before." Sam's expression was somewhere between surprised and horrified.

 

"Mom nursed _you,_ Sasquatch." Dean shook his head. "And let me tell you, that is _weird_. Being four years old and the new baby is trying to eat your mom. That was before I even knew about monsters."

 

Sam smiled, gave half a snort of laughter.

 

Bobby sighed internally, hoping that maybe things were starting to smooth over with the boys.

 

Danaea was asleep again, so Dean asked Sam to grab the quilt from the back of the couch and put it on the floor. Dean laid the baby down on the quilt and sat down on the end of the couch near her.

Bobby and Sam took that for their cue to get back to work, so they all hit the books.

 

A little less than an hour later, the baby woke up fretting, so Dean took her upstairs for Bela to feed and change.

 

That was the end of any meaningful research for Sam, who spent the entire time Dean was gone looking toward the stairs every thirty seconds.

 

It didn't get any better when Dean came back, because he brought the baby back with him, and she was awake. He put her back down on the blanket but stretched out beside her and began reading to her softly.

 

"'The Zoroastrians believe there are 3,333 demons in the world.' Well, I hate to tell them kiddo, but as many as our family has killed and as many as keep turning up, I think they severely underestimated." He said, barely loud enough for Bobby and Sam to hear.

 

Bobby glanced over from watching Dean with his niece to Sam, and was surprised by the barely controlled fury on the boy's face.

_Balls. There goes the smoothing over._

 

"The name Beelzebub derives from the Canaanite words meaning 'Lord of the Flies' but I think they kinda missed the point on that one, because you can't swat the motherfuckers." Dean murmured.

 

Danaea just blinked at him and sucked on her knuckle.

 

Sam shot to his feet, slamming his book shut with a bang. "I'm going outside."

 

"Sure, Sammy." Dean looked up him, his face tight as well. "Say hey to Ruby for me. That was who you were talking to earlier, wasn't it?"

 

"So what if it was?" Sam asked. "I thought I didn't need your permission to talk to her?"

 

"No, you just do whatever you want, Sam." Dean fired back. "It's not like we're under the gun to save your kid from demons or anything."

 

"My kid?" There went Sam with the hands again. "Try Bela's kid. This was her plan. Not mine. And besides, it's Bela's soul on the line."

 

"Yeah, whatever Sam." Dean huffed. "Go play with Ruby. You can't knock her up, right?"

 

Sam didn't answer, just stomped out and slammed the door hard enough to rattle the windows.

 

Danaea fussed a little, but Dean got her settled and went back to reading, to himself this time.

 

Sam returned an hour later, all whipped puppy with slumped shoulders and sad eyes. He held a Walmart bag out to Dean.

 

"I got a couple bottles and some peppermint tea. And some drops that the pharmacist were safe for tiny babies for soothing their stomach. You never got a chance to go earlier and I figured it would be harder for you to go if you had her with you."

 

Ten year old Sam flashed into Bobby's head, bringing over a couple sodas to get Dean's attention when fifteen year old Dean was trying to make time with a pretty cheerleader.

_Balls. Sam still hasn't learned to share._

 

And Dean is just as much Sam's big brother as ever, gave Sam a brilliant smile as he took the bag.

 

"Good. The colic is probably gonna hit her again after dinner, and I wasn't really looking forward to it."

 

Sam went ahead and made the tea for Dean, _because let's face it, he wasn't doin' it for the kid_ , so it would be ready when the time came.

 

They went back to reading for a while, until Bela came downstairs.

 

She greeted them like she was the queen and they were peasants, announcing that she needed to nurse the baby before dinner time.

 

Sam snapped his book up and shot to his feet. "I'm going to start dinner."

 

Bela smiled at him sweetly. "Sam darling, it's not like your mouth hasn't been where hers is about to be."

 

Yeah well, that was enough for Bobby too. "I'll go help him so the idjit doesn't burn my house down."

 

Dean gestured to the chair Bobby had just vacated, as Bobby followed Sam out of the room.

 

Dean was the best cook of them, but Sam didn't do too bad. He fried up some chicken breasts and made rice. Bobby cut up vegetables for Sam to stir fry while keeping one ear to the doorway in case things got out of hand with Dean and Bela again.

 

He heard their voices, just low murmurs that he couldn't make out, but it didn't sound like anyone was in mortal peril.

 

Bela and Dean came into the kitchen just as Sam was taking everything up. The rice was clumpy and the veggies were a little on the undercooked side of crisp, but everything tasted all right.

 

Besides, it was a lot better than the canned chili and grilled cheese sandwich or scrambled egg Bobby probably would have eaten if the boys weren't there.

 

Nobody said much, just ate quietly, at least until Dean reached for his second piece of chicken.

 

"I still think it's completely unnecessary." Bela said.

 

Sam frowned, looked at her, then Dean, whose face had fallen into his "no arguments" expression.

 

"You can think whatever you want. Danaea is sleeping in my room tonight." he answered.

 

"Wait, what?" Sam's eyebrows shot to the top of his head.

 

"She will wake up at least twice during the night to be fed. If she's in your room, you're going to have to bring her to me, and most likely wake everyone in the house in the process. If she's already in my room, I can just nurse her and put her back to sleep." Bela pointed out.

 

"You wanted the kid protected. She's gonna be protected." Dean said around a mouthful of chicken.

 

"I didn't mean it was necessary to protect her from me." Bela sighed.

 

"You were the one going to sell her to the demons." Dean said.

 

"But I didn't. I brought her here for help instead." Bela reminded him.

 

"You've proven we can't trust you." Dean finished his chicken and wiped his hands. "Over and over and over."

 

He stood and got the bottle of tea from the fridge and stuck it in the microwave.

 

"At some point, we really are going to have to reach an understanding." Bela said.

 

"Not today." Dean replied with a bitter smile.

 

He took the bottle out, shook it up, checked the temperature, and left it on the counter while he went to the other room to get the baby.

 

He brought her back to the kitchen, talking to her softly. As he sat down with her, he held the bottle out to Sam.

 

"You want to do this?"

 

"Uh, no." Sam snapped.

 

He shoved his chair back roughly and put his dishes in the sink with a clatter before stomping off into the other room.

 

"You'd think he was the hormonal parent." Bela said, rising gracefully and carrying her dishes to the sink.

 

"Don't." Dean warned.

 

"I'm going back to research." Bela announced as she headed toward the stairs.

 

Dean seemed to have the baby under control, so Bobby went back to his own books.

 

Sure enough, the colic kicked in about 45 minutes later.

 

It wasn't as bad as the night before. Danaea cried, but she wasn't screaming like a banshee this time. Dean gave her some of the drops Sam got, and it even got a little better.

 

But she still cried and Dean still walked her in circles around the kitchen, holding her facedown and rubbing her back.

 

The longer it went on, the more tense Sam got, the tighter his lips were pressed together and his fists clenched, until the kid was practically vibrating with irritation.

_Enough._

 

"Sam, can you come out to the garage with me for a minute?" Bobby asked.

 

The boy jumped up and practically ran outside, waiting for Bobby on the porch.

 

Sam followed Bobby out to the shop and leaned against the workbench. "What can I do for you. Bobby?"

 

"You can get your ass off your shoulders and stop acting like a spoiled brat, that's what!" Bobby snapped.

 

"What?" Sam spluttered.

 

Bobby gestured toward the house. "Yeah, I _know_ Bela manipulated you seven ways to Sunday and pulled off a pretty shady trick to get pregnant. But that doesn't change the fact _you_ slept with her, Sam! You weren't tied to a bed, or drugged, or had a gun to your head. You could have said no and walked away. But you _didn't._ And that little girl wouldn't be in this world if you had said no. I told both you and Dean when you were teenagers hanging around here and I had to buy tissues by the case to keep from having to wash every towel I owned every day, that if you're gonna stick your dick in a girl, you're gonna have to own up to whatever happens afterwards, whether it's a kid or a disease or a psycho stalker. Now no, you didn't _know_ what Bela had going on, or what she was planning, but that doesn't change the basic facts of the matter. You made the decision to have sex with a woman and she had a baby nine months later. Birth control can and does fail, and you would have ended up with the same result. That is _your_ young'un. _Yours._ There ain't none of this her fault, and she doesn't deserve the blame for it. I know you got daddy issues out the wazoo, but do you want your kid to have them too? Or are you gonna man up and do the right thing by that baby? You always did whine about all the things your daddy did wrong. Are you gonna leave your kid for Dean to raise like he did, or are you gonna grow up and be a man about this?"

 

"Bobby." Sam shook his head, his bottom lip quivering.

 

"And that's another thing!" Bobby continued. "Every time you see Dean with that baby you get so jealous you can't see straight because you've never had to share Dean's attention with anyone. You know what he sees when he looks at that young'un? The best and purest parts of the person he went to Hell for. You two forget that sometimes, and I'm not sayin' you ain't had a lot on your minds, because I understand, I really do. Not to mention that no chick flick moments bullshit your daddy drilled into both your heads and bein' raised around a bunch of old, emotionally traumatized hunters didn't do y'all any favors. That don't change the fact that Dean loved you enough to sell his _soul_ for you, and you loved him enough that you tried to take on Hell singlehanded to get it back. All this crap that's going on? The angels and demons and all that? He's floundering. He doesn't know what he's doing, and it scares him to death. But what's the one thing he knows how to do blindfolded with one hand tied behind his back? Watch out for Sammy. All his life he's been a mother hen with one chick. And that young'un is a little baby Sammy. Even if that kid is Bela's, Dean is gonna love her because she's yours too."

 

Bobby figured he'd shellshocked the kid enough for one evening, so he lowered his voice and patted Sam's shoulder.

 

"Look, I'm not saying to marry Bela for the sake of the kid. I'm not saying you even have to _like_ Bela. But you've got to put the rest of it aside and do what's right for that little girl. There's enough screwed up Winchesters in this world already."

 

And with that, Bobby turned and went back to the house, leaving Sam propped against the workbench with his mouth still gaping open.

 

Because if he knew anything about Winchesters, it was that sometimes you had to smack them between the eyes with the facts and then let them figure out the rest of it for themselves.

 

Dean looked up when Bobby came in the back door, then frowned past him. "Where's Sam?"

 

"Thinkin' through some things." Bobby told him, then went back to his books.

 

The colic fit was over a lot sooner that night, a little over half an hour start to finish. But after, the young'un was worn out and fretful. Dean tried to lay her on the blanket, but she fussed, so he leaned back in the corner of the couch and let her sleep on his chest with one of his big hands covering most of her back, trying to read one handed.

 

Sam came in a few minutes later. He didn't say anything, he just gently picked up the baby, sat down beside Dean, and laid her in his lap. Her eyes fluttered open, but she didn't cry, she just laid there and looked at him.

 

"Hey Danaea," he whispered.

 

Bobby figured that if Sam actually called his daughter by name for the first time, it was probably best to let them have a few moments. He got Dean's attention and gestured with his head toward the kitchen.

 

Dean looked kinda confused, watching Sam talk softly to the baby, so Bobby grabbed him by the arm and herded him along.

 

Bobby brought a couple books for them. He gave one to Dean and settled into the hardback chair to read his own.

 

When they heard Sam start crying, Dean was out of his chair like he'd been shot from a cannon. Bobby grabbed Dean's arm and shook his head.

 

Dean sat back down, but he watched the doorway and didn't even pretend to study.

 

Bobby tried for a few minutes, but eventually gave up and poured them both a shot.

 

Sam's shot was sitting on the table when he finally came in, looking both physically and mentally exhausted.

 

He murmured "Thanks Bobby." into the glass, threw back the whiskey, and carried the sleeping baby upstairs.

 

Dean looked at Bobby, who nodded, and followed him.

 

Bobby reckoned no one got much sleep that night.

 

Danaea woke up crying every two hours or less. Bela wasn't wrong about Dean waking the whole house to bring the baby to her, although at least once it was Sam who apparently stubbed his toe in the hallway and let loose with a string of curses strong enough to peel the wallpaper.

 

The three men glared at each other over coffee the following morning while Bela flounced downstairs so perky that she should have been shot.

 

She announced that she had a few errands to run, so she had called a cab, and should be back in plenty of time for Danaea's next feeding.

 

Bobby scrambled eggs and cooked bacon to go with it. Dean made toast, and Sam slipped outside, apparently to make a phone call.

 

When he returned, Dean asked "Anything important?"

 

Sam shook his head.

 

After they ate, Dean and Bobby got started with the research while Sam took his turn with the dishes.

Shortly after he joined the others in the library, Sam's phone rang. He pressed the button to ignore the call. It rang about every five minutes after. Once he sent the seventh call to voice mail, Sam turned the phone off.

 

Dean smiled behind his book.

 

Seeing as how the young'un had been up half the night, she slept like the proverbial baby all morning.

 

Bela returned after about two hours with several shopping bags, a box of diapers, and box proclaiming that it was a breast pump. She showed Dean a schedule she had worked out, proposing that one day Dean and Sam would take care of most of the baby's feedings using bottles of pumped breast milk Bela provided, and Bela would feed her at night. The following day, Bela would feed her during the day, and the boys could get up with her during the night. That way, everyone could get more sleep.

 

Dean, surprisingly agreed. Of course, he probably realized he would have to deal with Sam and Bobby if he didn't.

 

The rest of the day was strangely quiet. Bela brought down bottles of milk and the books she had been looking through, took back more books and a sandwich, and wasn't seen the rest of the day. Bobby and the boys ate sandwiches while working, with one of the boys having to stop and feed the baby a couple times.

 

Which of course turned into both of the boys having to stop and feed the baby, because Sam had apparently never even held a baby before. Dean of course had to show him how to do everything and then fret over how Sam was doing it.

 

By the end of their third day of research, Bobby was up for calling for help.

 

Of course, problem was that Jim Murphy was the number one expert on demonology Bobby had ever known, and it was really damn inconvenient that he was dead at the moment.

 

He wasn't desperate enough to call Rufus yet, so he left a message for Garth. No matter what else you can say for the idjit, he's smart. Well, book smart, at least. He ain't got sense enough to come inside when it rains, but he remembers everything he's ever read or heard about lore.

 

Garth didn't answer, so Bobby left him a message saying he was looking for some help on demon lore, and hoped Garth wasn't too deep in a case to call back soon.

 

At dinner time, Dean announced that they needed comfort food, so he went into town to pick up Butter Burgers for himself and Bobby, and grilled chicken salads for Sam and Bela.

 

Sam gave Danaea the peppermint tea and drops before the colic set in, but once it started, he deferred baby duty to Dean.

 

Dean glared at his brother, and instead of taking the young'un in the other room, he circled the library with the baby in his arms, singing softly. As he approached the end of the room where Bobby and Sam worked, they could make out some of the words he sang, because God knows the song wasn't recognizable from the tune Dean was singing.

 

"...hang your head in sorrow, and please don't cry. I know how you feel inside, I've been there before ... "

 

"Oh, hell no!" Sam snapped, shoving his book halfway across the coffee table and bolting to his feet. "You are not singing my daughter Guns 'n' Roses!"

 

"Why not?" Dean frowned.

 

"Because Axl Rose is a racist, homophobic, misogynistic primadona, and such an asshole that Nirvana and Metallica wouldn't tour with him. Because their music would be so much better if they had any idea of when enough is enough, like that ridiculous drawn out reverb thing at the end of _Don't Cry_ or the fact that _November Rain_ is almost ten freaking minutes long or the random talking in _Knockin' on Heaven's Door_. And because I'm her father and I said so." Sam stood in front of Dean with his hands on his hips.

 

Dean shrugged, and put the baby in Sam's arms. "Fine, _daddy,_ go sing her some John Denver or something."

 

Dean sat down in the spot Sam had vacated and picked up the book Sam had been reading.

 

Sam looked at Dean, then at the young'un against his chest, and back at Dean, his mouth opening and closing without a sound, realization that he had been played dawning across his face.

 

And once again, Bobby had to bit his lip to keep from laughing at how those two boys always knew exactly how to work each other.

 

At ten o'clock, Bela came down and announced that since she was going to bed now, she would take Danaea up with her.

 

Sam nodded, but Dean bit his lips.

 

As soon as she was up the stairs, he came out with it.

 

"I don't like it. I don't trust her, and I don't like her being alone with the baby."

 

Sam rolled his eyes. "Dean. She is Danaea's _mother._ She was alone with the baby nine months before she was born and almost two weeks after. And besides, she came here for help. If she was going to give the baby to the demons, she would have already done it."

 

"But she's been here four days and we haven't found anything." Dean argued. "At some point she's going to get desperate."

 

"Well, it's pretty unlikely she's gonna get desperate tonight." Bobby pointed out. "I mean, she went and bought a case of diapers today. She's made a schedule of rotating feedings. And she sure didn't look desperate or out of sorts just now."

 

Dean sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. "Yeah, I know. But I just ... " He shook his head.

 

"Look," Bobby said. "This whole property is warded out the wazoo. There's salt embedded into every window and door frame and hidden demon traps in almost every room. And now with the added angel warding, there's not much that would be able to get in and out of this house, period. The door to that bedroom Bela is using creaks loud enough to wake one of us. Not to mention the fact, that if one of us sleeps down here on the couch, she's not going to get past us and get out of the house without us knowing. So even if she got desperate, there's no way she could get the young'un out of here to the demons without us being able to stop her."

 

"Yeah." Dean agreed.

 

But he sure didn't look happy about it.

 

Bobby wasn't surprised when Dean volunteered to sleep downstairs.

 

Bobby slept a lot better that night. He only heard the baby cry maybe twice, but apparently Bela got her almost immediately, so Bobby was able to go right back to sleep.

 

He and Sam were across the table from one another sipping their coffee when Dean stumbled through on the way to the bathroom.

 

Sam had his brother's coffee waiting when he came back, black with sugar, how Dean took it when he wasn't on a case.

 

Dean muttered his thanks as he dropped into his chair. After he had sipped about half his cup, he looked at his brother.

 

"You didn't go up and get Danaea yet?" He asked.

 

Sam shook his head. "It's Bela's turn for feedings. She's got last night and today, and then we take back over tonight. I hadn't heard her moving around yet, so she's probably sleeping in."

 

Dean looked at the clock, then gulped down the rest of his coffee and headed toward the stairs. "Bela doesn't sleep this late. Or at least she hasn't since she's been here." He called back over his shoulder.

 

"Ask her about the extension on the deal." Sam called back. "We never did get the details on that."

 

Bobby heard Dean knock on the door, but he didn't hear an answer.

 

A minute or so later, Dean knocked again.

 

"Bela, are you decent? Bela?"

 

Sam was already out of his chair and Bobby wasn't far behind him by the time Dean opened up the door and yelled "Son of a bitch!"

 

Sam and Bobby rushed up to find Dean standing in the unoccupied bedroom. Most of Bela's and the baby's things were still there, but the people were not.

 

The window was open, and there was folding emergency escape ladder hanging down from it.

_Well, we know one of the things she bought yesterday._

 

"Son of a bitch." Dean repeated.

 

Sam moved from closet to suitcase in the corner to dresser drawers, taking inventory of what was left behind.

 

"Why ... she ... why would she leave _now?"_ Sam asked, more to himself than the others.

 

Dean's muttered curses grew progressively louder and more colorful.

 

Bobby grabbed the books Bela was supposed to have been researching in, flipping through quickly to see if any pages had been ripped out. He didn't see any right off.

 

"Come on, let's get the laptop." Dean said to Sam as he rushed out the door.

 

"Why?" Sam asked, following him.

 

"I switched the GPS on her phone. I knew she was gonna do something like this."

 

"You really think she didn't notice?" Sam asked skeptically.

 

"She was feeding the baby." Dean said, flipping the laptop open and shoving it into Sam's hands. "I told her I was putting a hex bag in her purse."

 

"She's not stupid, Dean." Sam muttered as he started the computer.

 

"Never thought she was." Dean answered, looking over Sam's shoulder. "Either she didn't pay attention, and it's still on, or she did and she's turned it off."

 

Bobby couldn't see through the two of them, but he heard a metallic pinging sound.

 

"Or she knew you did it and this is some kind of trap." Sam said grimly.

 

"What choice do we have?" Dean sighed.

 

According to the signal, Bela was just outside of town, and if Bobby was remembering right, there was an abandoned packing house around about there.

 

Which of course, would probably make a good place to summon a demon.

 

Bobby dug out a county road map from the desk drawer. Dean shouted for Castiel, apparently unsuccessfully, while Sam stepped outside to make a phone call.

 

He was back in less than a minute later.

 

"Ruby coming?" Dean asked.

 

Sam snorted. "No. She's apparently a little pissed about being blown off yesterday. How about Cas?"

 

"No answer." Dean shook his head.

 

"Well come on then, idjits." Bobby led the down to the basement to load up all the weapons they could carry.

 

The GPS was still pinging the same location, so hopefully Bela and the baby would stay put until they got there.

 

They brought both the Impala and Bobby's truck, parking over half a mile away and going in on foot to avoid being heard.

 

"It's a trap." Sam hissed.

 

"No shit." Bobby whispered back.

 

There was no one in sight, no signs of demons or angels, no EMF, so they decided to go in together.

 

They found Bela alone, in the big empty main room, sitting in a chair with Danaea in a carrier beside her.

 

"Hello boys." She greeted them sweetly.

 

"Not your line." Dean shook his head. "What the hell, Bela?"

 

Almost on cue, demons appeared at all the doorways.

 

Sam looked around at the demons, and then at Bela with a look of realization.

 

"You said you had changed your mind about giving Danaea to the demons!" Dean shouted.

 

"She did." Sam said softly, still looking at Bela. "She's giving _us_ to them instead."

 

Bela smiled and stood. "When I first tried to negotiate my way out of the deal, I found there were two warring factions of demons. One wanted Sam Winchester dead. The other wanted Sam Winchester alive. You see, there had been a legend among the demons for years, about the Boy King who was going to lead the armies of Hell, to start the uprising against Earth and Heaven. But when the time came, Sam didn't lead them. He left them high and dry. He _hunted_ them. The demons were disappointed, to say the least. One group wanted the Boy King to come to power, whether Sam wanted to or not. The other wanted him out of the way permanently. The night I my deal was due, when I came to your hotel room, to kill the two of you, I would have earned my soul back from the side that wanted to make sure Sam never took his place in Hell. Unfortunately, the evening didn't go as planned, but Lilith was generous enough to extend my deal, hoping that Sam's child could be used as bait in a trap for Sam. On the other hand, when I failed, Team Boy King was willing to let me out of my deal of when I told them that I could offer them the Boy King's child. You see, if they can't have Sam, then his direct descendent would be the next best thing. Then once Danaea was born, along came the angels, Uriel and Zachariah. They said they had a use for the Winchesters, and they were interested in any Winchesters they could get, even infants. There I was, negotiating the best deal from all sides in exchange for my daughter, when I had an epiphany. I could actually deliver what all sides still wanted, which is Sam Winchester."

 

"Well bully for you!" Bobby spat at her. "Do you ever get tired of hearin' yourself talk?"

 

"Bobby, I do apologize that you were brought into the middle of this." Bela shrugged. "Had you just stayed home, you wouldn't be in any danger now."

 

"Nobody is getting sacrificed to anyone!" Dean yelled.

 

He grabbed a jar of rock salt mixed with holy water from his inner jacket pocket and tossed it at the feet of the two nearest demons, then came up with a salt shell gun in each hand.

 

"Dean." Sam said softly and evenly.

 

When Bobby and Dean looked to Sam, he shook his head.

 

"Okay, I'm here." Sam spread his arms wide, hands empty. "Let Bobby and Dean walk out of here with the baby, and you've got me."

 

"Sam!" Dean hissed.

 

"What the hell, boy?" Bobby asked.

 

"Dean, take Danaea and get out of here. Bobby, cover them." Sam said, still watching Bela.

 

"Sam, I'm not gonna let you do this." Dean growled.

 

"Dean, get Danaea out of here before the fight starts." Sam told him.

 

"Sam."

 

"Dean. Get her out of here. Please." Sam repeated.

 

"Dammit, boy." Bobby pleaded. "We'll fight, Sam."

 

Sam ignored Bobby and glanced over his shoulder at Dean. "Dean. I know this is something you don't want me to do, but you know, maybe this is all for the best. Dad told you that you'd have to save me or kill me, and you said I could turn into something you'd have to hunt."

 

"Yeah, Sammy." Dean answered. "Come on, Bobby."

 

Now Bobby was fluent in a lot of languages. Winchester Code wasn't one of them, but that didn't mean Bobby didn't recognize it when he heard it.

 

Sam and Dean had just hatched some kind of plan, and all Bobby could do was play along until he could figure out what it was.

 

One of these days, he was going to get a list of their code words.

 

Dean stepped forward and picked up the baby, carrier and all.

 

"Dean." Bela said. "You may remove her before the fight starts, but I will be taking her with me afterward."

 

"Not a chance in Hell." Dean snarled.

 

"We'll see, darling." Bela smiled at him.

 

Bobby pulled out one of the salt guns and followed Dean through the doorway into the next room. The demons stood aside to let them pass.

 

The next room was some sort of office, with a small closet or supply room off to one side. Dean opened the door and set the baby carrier down inside. He then pulled his salt guns back out and put them on a low shelf. He took the bag of salt from inside his jacket pocket and handed it to Bobby before he unbuckled Danaea, who was asleep, and lifted her into his arms.

 

"Put down salt and then go help Sam." Dean instructed, as screaming began from the next room. "I'll keep the demons out of here."

 

Bobby grabbed a roll of double sided tape from his pocket, put a line of it just inside the doorway.

 

The screaming was getting louder, and now Bela was shouting, but Bobby couldn't make out what she was saying.

 

"Go!" Dean urged. "Help Sam! I'll do this! Gimme the salt and go!"

 

The baby was starting to cry.

 

Bobby shoved the carton of salt into Dean's hand and ran back into the main room.

 

Sam stood where Bobby had left him, hands outstretched made into fists, teeth gritted and face drawn into a grimace.

_So this is what Dean has been so worked up over._

 

Demons were double over, on their knees, or collapsed onto the floor all around, with swirls of black smoke all around.

 

The screams were no longer coming from the bodies, but from within the smoke itself, rising into high pitched shrieking that Bobby figured must be what the tortured souls in Hell sounded like.

 

Bela sat in the middle of it all, her hands over her ears.

 

At once, all the black smoke thickened, congealed into something almost tangible, and then dissipated in the next instant, leaving all of the demon hosts to drop to the floor.

 

Sam sank to his knees, blood steadily flowing from his nose. He closed his eyes and gasped for breath.

 

Bela stood and walked over to stand in front of the boy.

 

"Well played, Sam." She mockingly praised him. "But you see, the angels warned me that you could exorcise demons. I had to take some other precaution to ensure that I was still able to salvage at least one of my bargains."

 

Bobby felt air move past him, as if something large and invisible had walked by. Then it growled, and Bobby knew immediately what it was.

 

"You see, your parlour tricks only work on demons. They don't work on Hellhounds." Bela said, taunting him.

 

Sam raised his head, and Bobby wasn't sure whether the boy could see the Hellhound or not, but he looked to where the thing stood, no fear in his face.

 

"I was really hoping that your fuel would be low, and you wouldn't be able to cast out all the demons." Bela continued. "However, I did plan for contingencies. Not the best deal I could have made, but any deal is better than none."

 

Sam leaned forward, falling onto his hands and knees, and lowered his head.

 

Bela raised her hand, apparently about to give the signal for the Hellhound.

 

Bobby Singer is an old hunter, and he didn't get that way by hesitating.

 

He shot Bela with rock salt.

 

It didn't kill her; hell, it didn't even slow her down much, but it did draw blood.

 

Blood of the Damned, and that was one thing Bobby had read plenty of lore about over the past few days.

 

With the scent of her blood in the air, the Hellhound turned its attention to her for a moment, giving Bobby the chance to dart past, grab Sam with an arm around the chest, and throw both of them as far across the room as possible.

 

The Hellhound pounced on Bela, snapping and snarling, and she began screaming.

 

Sam shoved himself to his feet and he and Bobby stumbled toward the door as fast as they could. Bobby yanked the closet door open, and nearly got shot in the process.

 

"Come on!" He shouted.

 

Dean didn't have to be told twice. He threw one arm under Sam's shoulder, and held the baby with the other. Bobby got Sam's other side, and the lot of them got out of there.

 

They made it back to the vehicles with no sign of anyone or anything after them. Bobby asked Sam to stop along the way and call in an anonymous tip to the sheriff's office, figuring no one down there was likely to recognize Sam's voice.

 

According to the police reports Sam hacked into the next day, several of the demon hosts had been found alive but rather confused. The police were calling it a group of wannabe Satan worshippers gotten out of hand, and Bela's mangled body was presumed to be a human sacrifice of some kind.

 

Well, they weren't totally wrong. Maybe got a few of the details a little skewed, but Bobby was pretty sure someone there had been a Satan worshipper, and they definitely had intended on having a sacrifice.

 

Bobby spent the next two days feeding Sam lots of food high in iron and being patient every time Dean jerked awake and instantly had to go find the baby to reassure himself that demons hadn't gotten her after all.

 

To tell the truth, Bobby himself had held the young'un a couple times while the boys were asleep. Even for a hardened, cynical, paranoid old hunter, there's just something magical about a tiny little being who doesn't have a care in the world as long as her belly is full and her bottom is dry.

 

But when it's the child of a boy that you practically raised, well, there's just something extra special about that one.

 

It wasn't all wine and roses, though. Sam still sat with his daughter as if he couldn't decide if he was fascinated or horrified that he had made this kid.

 

As if he couldn't decide whether he wanted to wrap her up and run away with her, or wrap Dean up and run away _from_ her.

 

And for Dean, he still read to the baby and walked her through her colic which was thankfully already starting to ease and spoiling her like he had with Sam, but there were times, long minutes when he would stare out the window at the Impala, mornings when he hesitated a little too long over the news, too many times he looked up toward the sky to make sure there weren't any angels coming.

 

They were all waiting for the other shoe to drop.

 

By the third morning, he had seen Sam internally debating long enough that he pulled the kid aside and told him to just spit out it already.

 

"Bobby, I can't ... " Sam shook his head and shoved his hand through his hair. "The whole thing with the angels and demons ... I don't think they're just going to let me sit this one out because I have Danaea now. I can’t put her in the middle of it. I don't want her raised from motel room to motel room like Dean and I were. Even if they did leave us alone, that's not our life, Bobby. We've been in one place too long as it is. Dean and I are both getting twitchy. Dean belongs on the road ganking monsters, and I belong in the passenger seat beside him. I never wanted to have her, but she's here now and I do love her, I really do. But I'm afraid that if I quit hunting, stay home with her and let Dean go on alone I'm gonna resent it and I don't want to take things out on her the way Dad did on us sometimes. And if anything were to happen to Dean because I wasn't there to back him up ..." Sam shook his head again and bit his lip. "But I can't ... if I were to put her up for adoption and never see her again and have no idea where she was or if she was safe, that might be the best thing for her, but I don't know if I could live with myself. I'd worry all the time about who or what was coming after her, and what kind of danger I'd put innocent civilians in."

_Yep, knew this was coming._

 

Bobby sighed. "I know a couple, here local. They're good people. They tried for years and years to have a baby, and they finally had this little boy. Then the kid gets diagnosed with leukemia when he was 4 years old. They did everything they could, but he died about 6 or 8 months ago. If you're considering finding a family for Danaea to live with, they'd be worth talking to."

 

"Bobby, I don't want to hand a couple civilians a death sentence." Sam shook his head sadly.

 

"They're not exactly civilians." He held up his hand when Sam started to interrupt. "They're not hunters either. She's the sheriff around here. First female sheriff and youngest sheriff we've ever had. Her husband is a computer programmer now, but he's ex-military. 82nd Airborne, Grenada and Desert Storm veteran, so he ain't no pansy. I ain't sayin' they could protect that baby like you and Dean could, but I can't see them lettin' anything get close to her, either."

 

Sam took several long, deep breaths. "I'll talk to them, Bobby. I'm not making any promises, but I'll talk to them and see what I think."

 

Bobby patted the boy on the shoulder. "That's all you can do."

 

It was gonna be a whole other story to talk Dean into giving that little girl up, but Bobby figured he would wait until Sam met Jody and Sean Mills before telling Dean.


End file.
